Running in Place
I can’t believe I only have a few days until Christmas. I feel so unprepared this year. Last week I was down for the count with the stomach flu, so nothing got done. It took me down hard, but in the end I decided it was food poisoning. No one else got it, so it had to be, right? Ha! Elsa got hit hard with it last night, so I’ve got nothing done today. Hard to make time to wrap gifts when you are changing and bathing a baby every 20 minutes. Her poor little butt is so raw and there’s not much I can do other than what I’m doing.
Mike’s company doesn’t seem to realize the holidays are a hectic time so he’s working 11 and 12 hour days. When am I going to get gifts wrapped? Groceries bought? STUFF DONE????? I hate the people who decided 40 hour work weeks are no longer good enough.
Erik really, really, really, really, really wanted to make his teacher a treat for Christmas, so that was just another thing on my to do list. I usually let him pick out a very small gift, then give a nice gift card. I used to be a teacher. I know a gift card is way more appreciated than a handmade thing that you’ve got millions of because you’ve been in the business for years. Even though you might love your students, you just don’t have space for all their handiwork.
I saw a super easy recipe on pinterest or facebook or somewhere, so I actually let Erik make a treat. He was thrilled, so it was worth it. Plus it was super easy and fairly low cost. It if gets thrown straight in the trash I won’t feel like everything was totally wasted since Erik has gained a feeling of pride in doing a job by himself and he is learning to enjoy giving. Even if the treats are thrown in the trash, he’s gained something from it. And really? Are you going to eat a treat that some grubby looking six year old hands you? Gag. Any treat I ever received went straight into the circular file.
Easy recipe:
Take a bunch of tiny twist pretzels (or the square little pretzels if you can find them. I think they would be better) and put them on a cookie sheet. Unwrap a bunch of Hershey’s Kisses and then stick a kiss on each pretzel.
Pop into a 200 degree oven for 5 minutes.
When they come out, press an M&M onto the top of the Kiss.
Stick in the freezer until the chocolate hardens.
These actually taste really good, too. We used tiny twist pretzels, but as I said above, I think the square pretzels would be better because there would be a bigger pretzel::chocolate ratio.
The beauty of this: a child can actually do this whole thing almost completely by himself and there is very minimal clean-up if you have them put the wrappers in a little bowl as they go.
The downside: naughty little sisters. Elsa got a couple of Kisses and made the biggest mess ever. She didn’t eat them. She sucked on them, got them nice and melty, then smeared chocolate all over my house. The walls looked like they had been spread with feces. It was a surprisingly easy clean-up, but just one last thing I needed.
Also, she found my laptop and pulled the keyboard apart. GRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Aren’t toddlers fun? It’s under warranty so it’s not really a problem, except that I’ll have to be without a laptop for a few days. Woe is me and my first world problems, I know.
I have been such a crummy wife lately that I was going to make a super, extra effort to make sure Mike came home to a fairly clean house and a nice dinner on the table. I really lucked out in the husband department and I know he prefers a clean house even though he never says anything. Heck, I prefer a clean house and I’m the slob in this relationship. Every day I intend to do better and every day I am tired and beaten down by the time he gets home.
All my wonderful plans fell by the wayside because I was too busy cleaning up stomach flu diapers and chocolate smears. I’ll miss this when she’s a sulky teenager, won’t I?
Despite my wrecked laptop, Elsa really is a joy. She’s very shy and doesn’t like to be in trouble so I can take her anywhere. In the past few days she’s gone to the post office twice, to a crowded bakery, Target, Micheals and the grocery store. If she is allowed to roam free she just hangs on my leg. She doesn’t run all over the store. She doesn’t scream and cry. She doesn’t run up to strangers and harass them. She’s just so easy! After surviving Erik’s toddler years, I can hardly believe that she’s for real.
If she would have been my first I would have had a second baby a whole lot sooner. Just looking at her almost makes me want another baby now, and I in no way, shape or form want or need a third child. I feel really bad for the parents who have an easy going first born then have a second child with Erik’s temperament. It must be quite the shock to go from Pollyanna to Godzilla on crack.*
I do worry about her though. Lately when she meets someone new she totally freezes and looks down. It breaks my heart to see her looking so shy and afraid. When I tell her “no” if there is even a hint of aggression in my voice she looks down and looks so very ashamed. I hate seeing her like that. I want her to grow up to be a strong, confident woman. I need to get a book and figure out how to best mother her. The tactics I use with Erik are not going to work with her. That boy doesn’t have a sensitive bone in his body, so I’ve gotten in the habit of being really forceful and sometimes downright mean. I need to learn to tread carefully, which will not be easy after years of fighting with an overly confident, assertive son.
Change of subject:
Anyone need a NetFlix instant streaming recommendation? I notice they just added Terriers to instant streaming. Sadly, it was cancelled after the first season, but it is well worth the watch. All the major plot lines are completely tied up, so you won’t be too angry when it is over. It reminds me a lot of Veronica Mars, if Veronica Mars was an ex-alcoholic middle aged man.
Now that most of the shows I watch are going into re-runs, I’m back to Netflixing. Anyone have some reccs for me? I am almost done with Reaper, which I thoroughly enjoyed even if it is total fluff. I’m also watching and loving FlashPoint, but I can only take one episode at a time. I need another fun series to watch, or even some fun movies. I know nothing about movies. Anything that came out after 2005 is a complete mystery to me.
Same with books, but I don’t have much time to read. I just started a series that I think I’m really going to enjoy. I think it is called the Twenty Palaces series (I love my Kindle, but the one downside is that I’m not constantly seeing the cover of the book I’m reading). My favorite genre of book (epic fantasy) seems to have disappeared entirely, replaced by urban fantasy. Not that urban fantasy is bad, but it just isn’t the same. I love lush new worlds. It seems like all urban fantasy is set in rainy Washington state. Or at least the couple I’ve read. I don’t have a big sample that I’m talking about.
*Thank you, Marie, for that apt description
Sonja said,
December 21, 2011 @ 10:46 pm
The shyness you’re describing reminds me of Noah even just half a year ago. For example – we go to the same small grocery store every week and the same people work there every week and they always smiled and greeted him and remembered his name, and he wouldn’t even look them in the eye. I worried (and it was a bit embarrassing, too). He basically snapped out of it just 2 months ago, and now he talks their ears off. I frankly don’t think it was anything I did – he just aged and matured. Also, I’ve just accepted that being slow to warm up is part of who he is. As long as it doesn’t impede his friendships or learning, I don’t have a problem with it. (I mention learning – and should probably say “learning” – because it took him three weeks of gymnastics classes to let the coach help him and to actually talk to the coach. Now, however? Blah, blah, blah. Makes my mama heart happy.)
bethany actually said,
December 22, 2011 @ 12:03 am
1. I completely and totally am with you on the horribleness of 12-hour workdays for husbands, especially during the holidays. Troy got home at 8:30 last night. He got home at 7:50 tonight. Bleargggghhhhh.
2. You aren’t a crummy wife; you’re a wife who is also the mother of two small children. Someday when Elsa is older you will have the time and energy to keep the house up and cook nice dinners. You didn’t really get a reprieve between Erik and Elsa; just as he was getting easier, you had a baby again. I had a couple of years with just Annalie where it was SO much easier, and I totally had time to do all that good-wife stuff. You’ll get there in a couple years with Elsa.
3. Huh. Both of my kids like to run off and wander and can be a handful in stores and were/are crappy sleepers. Where’s my “good” kid!? I guess I won’t be having one. (Except my kids are awesome aside from all those things, of course. Funniest, smartest, etc.)
4. When I was a kid, I was super shy and hated talking to new people, especially if they directly approached me first and didn’t let me come around in my own time. I kept it up till I was old enough that my mom had to talk to me sometimes about how I was coming off as rude. But I outgrew it. And you would never call me insecure or lacking in confidence knowing me today, would you? 😉
5. Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve heard good things about “Terriers” from other sources, but if you liked it I know I probably will too. (I was rewatching the first episode of this season of “Castle” and swooning over Castle’s face when he realized Beckett didn’t remember (ha!) him telling her he loved her. Sigh.) I just finished watching “Farscape” which is all on Netflix except the ending miniseries, and loved it. We’ve also really been enjoying Warehouse 13 a lot. It’s pretty silly sometimes but also unexpectedly great.
6. I don’t know why I always feel compelled to comment on your blog in numbered lists. But there you go.
I hope everyone’s all better ASAP!
Jennifer said,
December 22, 2011 @ 7:41 am
I decided when Peter was in pre-school to give only gift cards to teachers – and grocery store ones at that. I don’t give really big ones (Peter has 2 teachers and they both got $10 … i have no idea if that’s good or bad?). I do give them our holiday photo card – mostly because I usually have way too many anyway. But even though i was never a teacher, I can simply imagine the boxes and boxes of ornaments and christmas crap that teachers get. I have christmas crap everywhere and I dont even get that much. what’s the best present you ever got as a teacher?
Gopher said,
December 22, 2011 @ 8:22 am
We’ve been watching Fringe! It’s very good.